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Late last year BlackBerry said it would enlist Chinese manufacturer Foxconn to assist in cutting production costs.
(Credit: Roger Cheng/CNET)
Now, at CES 2014, BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said that Foxconn will produce a sub-US$200 touchscreen phone, but Chen also teased that BlackBerry is working on a higher-end, keyboard phone being produced in-house.
“For emerging markets, BlackBerry will let Foxconn take a bigger role,” he said. “But we will do the next set of cool phones.”
It means that BlackBerry isn’t quite ready to leave the consumer market, despite speculation that the company might pull back to a pure enterprise roll.
“We’re not retreating from the consumer business,” Chen said.
However, BlackBerry will focus on enterprise in the main part for the next 18 months or so. In addition to devices, Chen told CNET that he wants to shore up the enterprise service and mobile device management business, build upon the momentum of the BlackBerry Messenger service, and better utilize its QNX platform.
